State Rep. Zach Cook introduces colleague and secretary of state candidate Nora Espinoza at a fundraiser at Sanctuary on the River where supporters handed Espinoza a $2,000 check raised selling Paint the State Red salsa.(Photo11: Dave Tomlin/Ruidoso News)

With the Rio Ruidoso burbling peacefully in the background, Nora Espinoza hammered again Thursday evening on the single issue that has animated the hotly contested race for secretary of state.

“I am the only candidate in this race who supports voter ID,” Espinoza told an enthusiastic crowd of Republican donors who showed up for a fund-raising reception at Sanctuary on the River.

“No one wants their money stolen,” she said during brief but passionate remarks on the twinkle-lit Sanctuary veranda as her supporters sipped drinks and dined on two kinds of gourmet chili. “So why should we have our votes stolen?”

Espinoza has been sparring all summer with her Democratic opponent Maggie Toulouse Oliver over whether voters arriving at the polls should meet much stricter requirements for proving their eligibility before casting ballots.

Espinoza has argued that voter fraud is a serious problem, and voters should have to show government-issued photo ID. Oliver’s position is that conservative claims of rampant voter fraud are greatly exaggerated and are really a smokescreen to justify measures that will disenfranchise many poor and minority voters.

Their exchanges mirror a national debate that has been playing out in federal court cases in Texas, North Carolina, Wisconsin and North Dakota, and in vigorous online argument, fueled by alarmist righteous indignation both sides.

A Google search on the question “Is voter fraud really an issue” turns up articles with titles like “7 Examples That Show Voter Fraud Is a Real Problem” alongside others like “9 Facts That Blow Up the Voter Fraud Myth.”

But Espinoza displayed no doubts about where the truth lies. She noted scornfully that the same New Mexico Democrats who opposed ID requirements for voting had required photo ID from anybody seeking admission to their own party convention.

And in an outraged stream of rapid-fire Spanish that delighted her listeners, she denounced as “an insult to Hispanics” Democratic claims that obtaining voter ID cards would be too hard for minority voters.

Espinoza’s chief campaign advisor, former state Sen. Rod Adair, was also at the event and said in an interview that voter ID opponents never offer real evidence for their claim that voter fraud of the type that ID cards would prevent almost never happens.

“It happens all the time,” he said.

Adair said the arguments that requiring ID would suppress minority voting are also generally unsupported.

“Nobody can find a person who didn’t vote because they didn’t have an ID,” he said, adding that low-income citizens seeking government assistance don’t seem to have any difficulty presenting the ID required for obtaining it.

“None of this makes sense,” he said.

Adair said the secretary of state contest Is enjoying an unusual star turn as the top statewide race on the November ballot, because Espinoza and Oliver are contending in an off year for the job left vacant when Dianna Duran was forced from the post for using campaign funds for casino gambling.

Both candidates have said that a major challenge they face is trying to raise voter awareness that the office is in play and informing the public about why it’s so important who occupies it.